MOVIE REVIEW: 'Sense of an Ending' ends up nowhere

In this plodding tale told in flash backs from the present to the mid-1960s, a sexagenarian Brit (Jim Broadbent) goes in search of closure for his youthful misdeeds.

By Al Alexander/For The Patriot Ledger

"The Sense of an Ending” is the sort of stiff-upper-lip, over-easy fare Jim Broadbent could do in his sleep. And in parts of this plodding drama about a sexagenarian Brit in search of closure for youthful misdeeds, you’d swear that’s exactly what he’s doing. But you’d be bored, too – if burdened with a moribund script by Nick Payne that sucks much of the life out of the prize-winning source novel by Julian Barnes.

Like last year’s vastly superior “45 Years,” the story begins with a death, a letter and thoughts drifting back decades to a first love, details of which a doddering old man has largely kept to himself. That film’s radiant star, Charlotte Rampling, even shows up here, not as the man’s mate, but as the elder version of the girl Broadbent’s Tony Webster loved and lost back in his university days. She’s the keeper of the movie’s central mystery, which involves a dairy, a suicide and a long-forgotten missive that significantly altered the paths of Rampling’s Veronica, her mother and Tony’s closest friend from his youth.

Payne and director Ritesh Batra follow the well-trodden path of flashing back and forth from the present to the mid-1960s, when Tony (played by Eddie Redmayne-clone Billy Howle) was sowing his oats and caught the fancy of a beautiful redhead named Veronica (a DOA Freya Mavor). Eventually she brings Tony home to her family’s posh country estate, where Mom (a flirtatious Emily Mortimer) holds more sexual power over the boys than does Veronica. Perhaps that’s because Mortimer has a pulse and Mavor does not. But I digress.

Into the midst of this alleged sexual heat wanders Tony’s bespectacled new classmate, Adrian (Joe Alwyn). Remember him, because he finally becomes relevant in an anti-climactic reveal late in the third act. Until then, he’s about as functional to the story as the wallcoverings. Ditto for the elegant Michelle Dockery, reduced to walking around with what looks like a fully inflated beach ball stuffed under her shift as Tony’s very-pregnant lesbian daughter, Susie. Absurdly, Dockery is given exactly zero to do beyond popping out a baby in the aforementioned Act 3 to underscore – I guess – that no matter what, life goes on.

Faring only slightly better is Harriet Walter as Tony’s ex, Margaret, whose relationship with Tony remains more than cordial – more like close friends. How convenient, since she’s about to become our personal sounding board, as Tony recounts to her the story of how he, Adrian, Veronica and Veronica’s mother all collided in tragedy way back when.

Because of the frequent flashbacks, Batra’s movie is literally all over the place. The best parts are almost exclusively limited to the scenes in the present, largely because it’s filled with actors the caliber of Broadbent, Rampling, Dockery and Walter, who flat-out steals the movie. Yet, you can’t dismiss the care and craftsmanship the director puts into accurately recreating the 1960s, right down to the terrific soundtrack that includes acts as diverse as The Troggs and Nick Drake. Kudos, too, to the sufficiently moody cinematography by Christopher Ross that appropriately reflects the dimming of the day.

The problem is that “Sense of an Ending” never has anywhere interesting to go. The “mystery” turns out to be a yawner, and the various relationships struggle to reach the level of blah. But in an era when movies geared toward the AARP crowd (me included) are sporadic at best, it’s hard to dislike a story that endeavors to be smart, evocative and in tune with the inherent melancholy of folks on the back nine – even if the film’s lofty ambitions almost always exceed its reach. THE SENSE OF AN ENDING (PG-13 for thematic elements, a violent image, sexuality and brief strong language.) Cast includes Jim Broadbent, Charlotte Rampling, Harriet Walter, Michelle Dockery, Emily Mortimer, Billy Howle and Freya Mavor. Grade B-